@BOYD: as bad as things are, you cannot predict where we'll be tomorrow. I'd agree as things are 'progressing', it does look hopeless. But I also know we'll eventually find a way to get this under control. We don't have a choice…

GE Mk1 reactors the control (hahahaha) rods come up from underneath, as they melted down with the fuel rods there would have been molten corium flowing down through the holes that the control rods pass though into the control rod drive cavity, quite probably enlarging the holes as it flowed. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Reaktor.svg

At 2400-2800c corium burns through concrete at the rate of 5cm per hour, and the base of the concrete dry well beneath the pressure vessel is about 8m as far as I can discover (anyone with better knowledge?). The time it would have taken the corium to burn through that thickness is about 160 hours. There are 24 hours in a day so 160 hours is 6.6666 days. There's one for the numerologists amongst us! Debbil's work for sure..

So let's say that after the fuel to start melting following the main cooling system failure during the earthquake (not tsunami, earthquake that fractured the cooling pipes), within about a week the corium would have been into the ground. Providing of course the thermal power of the corium was not exhausted by the concrete as is passed through.

Also, Arnie Gundersen puts the temperature of corium closer to 3500C, so could go through even faster, and who knows how fast or far it may have gone through the rubble that FukuSteamer was built on…plus, how many fractures or cracks in the foundations now from hundreds of tremors since…does the rise of the tide now contact the coriums and create all the steam that is rising from the ground and between the reactors now?

Yastel Yamada, says, "I am not a nuclear engineer but we have over a dozen in the SVCF. I worked as a project management engineer and built steel plants from design to construction to commission. With that background I am able to understand what has happened at Fukushima and what will be needed in the cleanup project."

The SVCF is an organisation trying to get elderly skilled workers involved in the Fuku clean up to save the young workers from radiation sickness. Quite brave. TEPCO doesn't want the help. Go figure.

Secondary explosions are going to happen when the concrete containment is breached. It is amazing to see that the structure has held up this long in the first place. If the fuel is breaking down concrete the radioactive emitters will show what materials are being irradiated and released. When hydrogen spikes or liquid nitrogen erodes the last inches of concrete in the containment vessel there will be new emitters released. I would estimate that a few billion bq/kg of Cesium were released and washed out cracks in containment in the first few hours of the explosion. The majority of the core would not simply have left the building with the water dumped on top of it. The cores all had enough time to accumulate volatile gas and react in a nuclear explosion which means the core is still digging downward farther than TEPCO will let the public know. If more hydrogen builds up or there is a large enough section of core that comes in contact with a body of sand and ground water we all will be in trouble. The question is how much core is driving the fission to burn into containment and at what speed. Count the days down until "Containment Breach".

"Containment Breach" for Coriums1,2,&3 happened in March and April of 2011, Grampybone. No "Secondary Explosions" occurred, although ENEnews observers have reported fires in the ground, plus many smoke and steam events. The 3 Rogue Nuclear Reactors are being cooled by groundwater flowing over, under, and around the corium on its way to the Pacific Ocean. Steam has been coming out of the ground between the Buildings since April, 2011, as reported, with photo evidence, on ENEnews. TEPCO has done slant drilling underneath the plants, without reporting the results, as reported on ENEnews. TEPCO knows where the Rogue Nuclear Reactors are. They just don't want to alarm the public, and so they keep the bad news to themselves. TEPCO continues to refer to Coriums1,2,&3 as if they were still in "Containment" or perhaps in the water in the basements. This is a lie, this is disinformation. TEPCO can't admit that they have no plan to "decommission" or "clean up" the 3 Rogue Nuclear Reactors. Ever. Don't spread TEPCO disinformation. Thank you.

What they are really trying to stop is a collapse of the spent fuel ponds in 1-3 (yes, 3 may be more burned up, but those three spent fuel ponds are more dangerous than Unit 4 in my opinion.

Why? Because they can't use humans to reinforce the floors because it is too radioactive. The coriums in the foundation and all the cooling water and the infiltration by aquifer water presents hidden dangers.

They don't know the structural integrity of Units 1, 2, and 3. If the coriums burn through the walls or out the bottom there is a chance for collapse of the support walls. Or the water could create issues for instability. Like Unit 4, the spent fuel ponds are up on higher floors.

If an earthquake or water sinkholes drop those spent fuel assemblies then things will get ugly in a hurry.

Here's what the NRC says about spent fuel rods:

"For example, ten years after removal from a reactor, the surface dose rate for a typical spent fuel assembly exceeds 10,000 rem/hour, whereas a fatal whole-body dose for humans is about 500 rem (if received all at one time). Furthermore, if constituents of these high-level wastes were to get into ground water or rivers, they could enter into food chains. Although the dose produced through this indirect exposure is much smaller than a direct exposure dose, there is a greater potential for a larger population to be exposed."

The Unit 4 reactor core is empty but the entire recent spent fuel load that was in it is not missing…it is in Unit 4's spent fuel pond along with the typically stored spent fuel. The reactor's fresh core offload is much hotter than the bundles that have been stored and cooling down for years throughout the plant site.

Units 1, 2 and 3 (and for that matter 5 & 6 along with the huge common storage pool) has a larger amount of cooler bundles since they have been stored for years with no where for long term storage placement but much cooler than Unit 4's pool bundles.

I understand your concern if 1,2 & 3 pools fail but you could probably cap them with sand and concrete without much worry. 4's pool fails and you lose the entire site to fallout contamination besides part of the world.

The more time that passes without a damaging quake or storm or whatever, the more time all the fuels have to cool down. More time, the best case scenario for fuel, melted or not.

Razzz sez…"I understand your concern if 1,2 & 3 pools fail but you could probably cap them with sand and concrete without much worry. 4's pool fails and you lose the entire site to fallout contamination besides part of the world."

SP: I hope you are correct, but as Arnie discovered the Japanese have made few preparations for a worst case scenario. No chemicals stockpiled for emergency activities.

The common spent fuel pond is ground level, but even that depth does not guarantee safety in the event an 8.0 erathquake destroys the integrity of the pool. The pools above ground are an engineering monument to stupidity. They were designed for convenience of offloading and reloading without a shred of concern for longterm safety. The NRC in America is responsible for allowing the same flawed design to continue operating in America. Dozens of Fukushima-style plants are busily clunking along away today. An accident like Japan would wreak havoc on the American people. The citizen outrage will topple any politician associated with the nuclear industry.

All older design plants should be shuttered immediately and the spent fuel ponds in upper pools relocated to safer storage. The courts should force this action because the NRC is a puppet for the industry and the politicians who enrich themselves from industry payments. The courts are the last hope for Americans to stop the unsafe practices of an out of control industry.

Because the problem is of Global importance, I suggest that the Japanese Government immediately host a Conference of noted scientists to develop a solution to the pollution to the Pacific Ocean before it is allowed to get any worse! Each day that goes by yet more highly radioactive water is entering the Pacific Ocean at Fukushima and this cannot be allowed to continue!

One solution they might consider is to capture the water and load it aboard large tankers to be slowly pumped overboard as the tanker sails IN A CAREFULLY PLANNED APPROVED route to truly speed up the dilution process by using all the oceans and seas …

As it is now the Fukushima radioactive pollution is creating a dead spot off the coast of Japan due to the concentration of radioactive pollution that continues to be added there and that is far more dangerous to mankind than far, far lower levels spread over the entire Planet.

Note: We all need to always use the words "radioactive pollution" instead of just "pollution" because one is quite different, than the other, ask The Japanese!

Hello everyone. I just wanna share with you a music track i made in honor of the fukushima Children and the children from all over the world that have been affected by this catastrophe. psylotron – Children of Atom http://soundcloud.com/eduardo-enr-quez/psylotron-children-of-atom Please don't consider this as spam, i ve been part of this community since more than 1 year and a half and this is the way i try to let the world know we havn´t forgotten Fukushima (scuse my broken English )

It´s free dude(you can download it or tream it) . If i could earn some money selling my tracks i would donate some of it(or all of it) to enenews or fukushima diaries i'll do it. Like i said, this is the way i follow to try to make more people aware of the disaster and also i wanted to share this here with this community.

Thanks for your words, i apreciate it.Zooner or later I will create a paypal account and of course ill be happy to share some money with this webpages because i strongly belive we re in debt with all those people that bring us tons of information that is no not aviable in the mass media. Meanwhile all we can help a lot spreading the word and im sure a lot of people in here is doing a good job sharing information on their facebook pages, twitter, and posting all kind of media to open the eyes of those who don´t know or don´t wanna see. Actually i guess some of my friends on facebook belive im paranoic or conspiranoic because i post a lot of stuff about fukushima hehe.

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